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Just wondering. I only kind of follow the 40k scene, but it seems that people write
new scenarios all the time and I'm curious as to how/why this is the case.

There seems to have been less new scenario design in 5th edition, IME.

Back in 3rd and 4th edition, new scenarios at tournaments were very much expected and commonplace. Of course, it’s easier to design scenarios if most missions are the same win condition (Victory Points), and you’re mostly just coming up with some VP bonuses, a special rule or two, and maybe a funky deployment. GTs and RTs in the US usually had MOSTLY new scenarios, with one or two being common ones (like Night Fight, Dawn Assault, or Cleanse).

When I was first frequenting 40k sites on the web about 11-12 years ago, new scenarios/missions were a fairly common type of free downloadable content that a lot of sites offered.

In the early-mid 2000s GW also encouraged this all / led by example by having the Rogue Trader scenario pack downloadable as PDFs from their website. It was around a dozen missions (when the rulebook only had 4-5 Standard Missions), with really nice graphics/artwork, attractive layout, scenario bonus points, etc.

From 1999- ~2005 or 2006 (maybe later) pretty much all the stores I went to had binders collecting a bunch of different scenarios, particularly leftover mission sheets from running RT tournaments, so players were used to playing ones NOT in the rulebook. They were particularly appealing because the 3rd ed rulebook only had 4-5 Standard Missions, so people were definitely thirsty for more variety.

When I was co-organizing the old Dakka League, we had a binder with a chart and a D66 table to roll missions on. Probably had a good 25-30 missions in there, between main rulebook ones, RT, GT missions, and the occasional new mission the organizers came up with.

I’m not sure exactly why we see fewer new scenarios nowadays, but I think I can identify a few contributing factors.

1. 5th edition is a more radical redesign than the revision from 3rd to 4th. That makes people less confident and comfortable doing home-design.
2. The main rulebook’s system totals 9 different deployment/mission combinations, which means you’re getting twice as much variety as we had in 3rd ed, so players don’t get bored with them as fast.
3. The new voluntary Reserve/Outflank mechanics give even more variety in deployment, enhancing the previous factor.
4. The last “official” GW GT (Baltimore 08) used out of the book missions, I think mostly since 5th was new. The current website does not have info about RT tournaments, as far as I can see. So GW has not been publicizing/promoting new & variant missions. The only GW US event which has been using them is ‘Ard Boyz, which was known to have out-there and unbalanced missions for the first couple of years, and then used pretty by-the-book ones in 2009.

The Adepticon staff still pride themselves on creating new, challenging, and multifaceted missions, and I’m sure they’re not the only one. But I think the above factors make it more common for less-organized and less-enthused store owners/staff/event organizers to just default to using the ones in the book.

I was thinking about the discussion of unbalanced gladiator missions the other night and realized I still had a bunch of my RTT missions in my gaming stuff.

Remember Head of the Snake?

+1 LD to everything in your army. If your chosen HQ dies, your whole army takes a morale check or falls back. Something like that.


Now that was balanced.